CA - Murder victims Identified as Rob Reiner and wife Michele - LA Dec 14 2025

[katydid23]

Carl was married with three children, two boys and a girl.

Carl Reiner wrote that pilot in 1957. His oldest child, Rob, was 9 years old. His next son came along 12 years later.

So when he wrote this pilot, his family experience was having a wife and one son and a daughter.

I just can't see how a single episode can be said to reflect what was happening in the Reiner household.

I can try and explain why one episode would reflect what was happening in the Reiner household.

First, it was the PILOT. A pilot encompasses the rest of the upcoming shows. It is written to preview or highlight what the entire series will entail. And the main focus of this pilot was about his son feeling his father was not there for him, but it ended on a good note, when his son loved his writing a funny poem. So the entire series was revolving around his family life and his role as a husband and father, while being a famous comedy writer.

WHICH MIRRORED HIS REAL LIFE.

And we also know, from historical record and from interviews with Carl, Rob and family members, that this pilot did describe some important family issues that played out in real life.

As I said earlier, comedy writers write about things they know about personally. Look at any successful stand up comic--they are talking about their own lives.

Carl Reiner was obviously writing about his own life because he did not change many circumstances in the pilot---he wrote about a comedy writer, of a tv show, in NY, who was married and had a son, and about the life circumstances surrounding that life. His life.
IMO

 

[LadyL]

didn't most 15 year olds think they hated their parents?

 

[MistyWaters]

Carl Reiner wrote that pilot in 1957. His oldest child, Rob, was 9 years old. His next son came along 12 years later.

So when he wrote this pilot, his family experience was having a wife and one son and a daughter.


I can try and explain why one episode would reflect what was happening in the Reiner household.

First, it was the PILOT. A pilot encompasses the rest of the upcoming shows. It is written to preview or highlight what the entire series will entail. And the main focus of this pilot was about his son feeling his father was not there for him, but it ended on a good note, when his son loved his writing a funny poem. So the entire series was revolving around his family life and his role as a husband and father, while being a famous comedy writer.

WHICH MIRRORED HIS REAL LIFE.

And we also know, from historical record and from interviews with Carl, Rob and family members, that this pilot did describe some important family issues that played out in real life.

As I said earlier, comedy writers write about things they know about personally. Look at any successful stand up comic--they are talking about their own lives.

Carl Reiner was obviously writing about his own life because he did not change many circumstances in the pilot---he wrote about a comedy writer, of a tv show, in NY, who was married and had a son, and about the life circumstances surrounding that life. His life.
IMO

From your earlier post:
“In the pilot, young Rob had emotional issues around his feelings about his father, the famous comedy writer. Young Rob was upset that his father never threw the ball with him like other friend's dads, and he never went to see his little league games on Sundays. His father Carl said " I can't--my show is filmed every Sunday."

Rob Reiner Says Dad Carl Reiner Taught Him and Son Jake to Love Baseball: 'Passing the Game Down' (Exclusive)

Rob Reiner and his son Jake tell PEOPLE about how patriarch Carl Reiner taught them to love baseball

people.com

“Rob says he fell in love with baseball on that day in 1951, even though his father Carl worried he'd get "bored" during the nine innings. "I was four years old and I stayed through both games. I was fascinated. I was hooked at that point."

I don’t think the plot was intended to represent an autobiography. In real life Carl and Rob shared a very deep bond over baseball, not a resentment.
JMO

 

[freudianslip]

From your earlier post:
“In the pilot, young Rob had emotional issues around his feelings about his father, the famous comedy writer. Young Rob was upset that his father never threw the ball with him like other friend's dads, and he never went to see his little league games on Sundays. His father Carl said " I can't--my show is filmed every Sunday."

Rob Reiner Says Dad Carl Reiner Taught Him and Son Jake to Love Baseball: 'Passing the Game Down' (Exclusive)

Rob Reiner and his son Jake tell PEOPLE about how patriarch Carl Reiner taught them to love baseball

people.com

“Rob says he fell in love with baseball on that day in 1951, even though his father Carl worried he'd get "bored" during the nine innings. "I was four years old and I stayed through both games. I was fascinated. I was hooked at that point."

I don’t think the plot was intended to represent an autobiography. In real life Carl and Rob shared a very deep bond over baseball, not a resentment.
JMO

Strange though that NR would bring this exact thing up when trying to convey how the making of Being Charlie made him feel closer to his dad : "We didn't bond a lot as a kid, like, he really liked baseball, I liked basketball. He could watch that with my brother but, baseball..."

 

[katydid23]

From your earlier post:
“In the pilot, young Rob had emotional issues around his feelings about his father, the famous comedy writer. Young Rob was upset that his father never threw the ball with him like other friend's dads, and he never went to see his little league games on Sundays. His father Carl said " I can't--my show is filmed every Sunday."

Rob Reiner Says Dad Carl Reiner Taught Him and Son Jake to Love Baseball: 'Passing the Game Down' (Exclusive)

Rob Reiner and his son Jake tell PEOPLE about how patriarch Carl Reiner taught them to love baseball

people.com

“Rob says he fell in love with baseball on that day in 1951, even though his father Carl worried he'd get "bored" during the nine innings. "I was four years old and I stayed through both games. I was fascinated. I was hooked at that point."

I don’t think the plot was intended to represent an autobiography. In real life Carl and Rob shared a very deep bond over baseball, not a resentment.
JMO

The pilot was very much based upon Carl Reiner's own life, imo. Not an autobiography in a literal sense. But it was based upon the story of a man, exactly like him---a comedy writer of a tv show, who lived in NY while married and being a father.

And THE ONE MAIN FAMILY ISSUE he built the pilot of the show around, was the relationship between him and his young son.

Most comedy is that way. WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW.


It is well known that Carl and Rob had a difficult relationship when Rob was young. Both men have discussed it publicly. Things improved over the years---but it was often strained.



The film felt somewhat autobiographical for the 39-year-old director, who as the son of Carl Reiner, the creator of The Dick
Van Dyke Show, often felt isolated from his father.


But unlike Gordie, the young protagonist in the film, Reiner had already begun making amends with his once-distant dad. As he told Borns at the time, “I’m just now coming to grips with being my own person. I’m a late bloomer, no question about it.”

” I started piecing together little hints in the story, like how the boy feels he is unseen by his father.

BORNS: Did you feel that as a child?

REINER: Well, that part of the story hooked into me; that’s what I could relate to. My father loves me, of course, and now that I’m grown up and I’ve established myself, we have a very good relationship—there’s a lot of respect and he’s very proud of me— but as a kid growing up, I felt very isolated and misunderstood.

I never felt, during any of that time, that I was living my own life. I thought I was an extension of my father’s life...

How Rob Reiner Used Movies to Make Amends With His Father

In October 1986, Rob Reiner sat down with Betsy Borns to make sense of his latest film. Today, we're revisiting that story.

www.interviewmagazine.com

​

How Rob Reiner’s need for father Carl’s approval shaped his relationship with son and alleged killer Nick​

https://nypost.com/2025/12/27/us-ne...VUdpNeMTlVmxU0E8o_aem_D7Ea_ugFrunwppbuw0XTsw#
Rob claimed that he was a hands-on and attentive father to son Nick, in contrast to his own father’s parenting style.


The “Stand By Me” director spoke to NPR just three months before his murder, revealing his desire for his showbiz father Carl Reiner’s approval led to him being “hands-on” with Nick.

“I felt that my father didn’t, you know, love me or understand me,” Reiner told radio show Fresh Air.


“Because loving your father and looking up to your father doesn’t necessarily mean you’re feeling that back, that you’re feeling that from him,” Reiner told host Terry Gross.

The late “Misery” director claimed Carl was not always around when he was a child and a young man — something Rob made sure to not repeat while raising his own three children.

“I was never, ever too busy,” Reiner told NPR about his parenting. “I mean, if anything, I was the other way.”

How Rob Reiner’s need for father Carl’s approval shaped his relationship with son and alleged killer Nick

Rob Reiner said his famous father Carl was not always around — something he made sure not to repeat while raising his own children, according to an interview with NPR.

nypost.com

 

[katydid23]

From your earlier post:
“In the pilot, young Rob had emotional issues around his feelings about his father, the famous comedy writer. Young Rob was upset that his father never threw the ball with him like other friend's dads, and he never went to see his little league games on Sundays. His father Carl said " I can't--my show is filmed every Sunday."

Rob Reiner Says Dad Carl Reiner Taught Him and Son Jake to Love Baseball: 'Passing the Game Down' (Exclusive)

Rob Reiner and his son Jake tell PEOPLE about how patriarch Carl Reiner taught them to love baseball

people.com

“Rob says he fell in love with baseball on that day in 1951, even though his father Carl worried he'd get "bored" during the nine innings. "I was four years old and I stayed through both games. I was fascinated. I was hooked at that point."

I don’t think the plot was intended to represent an autobiography. In real life Carl and Rob shared a very deep bond over baseball, not a resentment.
JMO

This^^^ is kind of making my point for me.

In the pilot script, WRITTEN BY CARL, he writes about the young son, feeling disappointed that his father didnt have time to throw the ball for him after school, like other dads do. And his dad not being there to watch the son's little league games.

But in the show Carl's character says " But I gave him Mickey Mantles autographed picture." And the wife says " Yes 3x you gave him that."

In other words, it wasn't about going to see the Yankees or the Mets. It was about the son's game and spending time with just the son playing catch.



So the above example, of Carl taking him to Yankees games is wonderful, but it did not fix the main problem that plagues their relationship---and Rob Reiner spoke about that same type of problem until he was much older---which was that he didn't think his father really saw him or understood him, and who he was. He felt his father was distant and self absorbed.

There are quotes from Rob Reiner discussing this issue in this thread.

It is hard for me to ignore what Carl Reiner wrote about in the pilot script, and try to dismiss it as irrelevant, when Rob Reiner is saying that those same things were a big issue in their real lives as he was growing up. His Dad was self centred, self absorbed and did not always understand what Rob needed from him as a father.